Using automated controls on vehicles could save motorist fuel costs, according to a study by Volvo and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
For the study, An Automated Vehicle Fuel Economy Benefits Framework Using Real-World Travel and Traffic Data, researchers examined data from more than 18,500 trips taken by Volvo employees and their family members driving similar vehicles around Gothenburg, Sweden. The researchers compared the fuel efficiency of cars that used adaptive cruise control (ACC) to those that did not.
ACC is a technology that relies on cameras and radar sensors to set its speed and distance.
To determine fuel economy, researchers took into consideration a wide variety of driving conditions and the amount of driving that occurred in each condition. Researchers concluded the vehicles using ACC had between a 5 percent and 7 percent decrease in fuel consumption.
Two factors could affect fuel economy, researchers said. The first effect is the degree to which vehicle automation may induce behavioral changes in the amount or distances that people travel. Second is the penetration levels into traffic.
“It is possible for high automation penetration to improve rather than worsen overall traffic flow if it includes vehicle-to-vehicle communication, enabling cooperative ACC,” the study’s co-author Jeffrey Gonder said.